Chapter 2.1- Cold Judgment

                     

It was her very first morning waking up in her own tiny house. She had arrived so late the night before she hadn’t even had time to look around. Simply pulling some night clothes out of the mess inside her luggage and falling into bed travel weary after her journey. Right now, she wouldn’t even be up if the sun hadn’t begun to stream through the uncurtained windows.

          Employing a few choice words she’d learned as she had travelled Layla stretched, trying to work the kinks out of her sore muscles. The mattress was going to need some breaking in.

          Turning, fully intent on giving the early morning sun a sound cussing out Layla finally saw what was out her windows and paused.  She had island hopped for nearly a month, only staying on one of them long enough to make her almost regret her decision to take her Uncle Triggers’ offer of help.  But looking out on the mountains blushing in the sunrise her heart lifted a little and she remembered why she had returned in the first place. It was time for her to live on her own a little while, to try her own path. And Ouroboros had provided her with a good basic education for just this.

          She found the kitchen bright and open. And though it was a little outdated by modern standards, Layla was cheered by it. Those who wanted to eat on Ouroboros had to cook over fires while having a refrigerator was completely out of the question. You found a good cold spring or dug a cellar if your food needed to be kept cold to be kept fresh.

          Though by the smell this fridge gave off, Layla was wondered if it kept anything cold or fresh. She’d have to give it a scrub later though as her stomach reminded her that she’d only had a small meal just before disembarking from the ship hours and hours ago. Thinking quickly, Layla decided to attempt some waffles as her first cooked meal by herself.

          Staring the stove down she took a few deep breaths trying to calm her nerves. Kaila and Lilith did this every day, all the time and made it look so easy. Her own mother had made cooking look easy. So why was Layla terrified of using the oven this first time?

She was scared she’d get burnt. That’s why. It was one area she knew nothing about: basic first aid. And fires. Out of control fires due to her poor cooking. They could happen. And there was nothing she could do about them it if it should happen. Well, if she really wanted, she could run out the front door and act as a speed bump for anyone trying to get in to put the fire out. That's what her dad would do at least.

          She had no timer and so tried to keep track of the cook time for the waffles in her head. Kaila nor Lilith hadn’t needed a timer. Open fires meant you could always see what you were cooking and could tell if it was undercooked or on its way to well done.

          Open fires also provided an awesome atmosphere to cozy up to someone special. And Layla drifted off in her thoughts back to moments with Joel.

          Joel had big strong arms that could make her feel so secure, unlike this cooking business that just had her confused. Joel’s kisses could take her a million miles from reality leaving her breathless and wanting more. She was sure she’d be sick of waffles by the time she actually learned to cook too much else.

          Lilith taught her to prepare fresh fish though. She could do that, provided she had a camp fire. Fishing with Joel by her side after Shane and Carrick’s lessons before sitting around a fire eating the oceans bounty moments after it had been caught made it a lesson forever locked in her mind. Joel feeding her bits with his fingers, his eyes burning into hers…

          Jumping a bit, she came back to reality as she discovered she’d lost track of how long the waffles had been in the oven. Yanking the oven door open Layla reached in and burnt her finger as she grabbed the pan bare handed in her haste. Thankfully, she hadn’t burnt her breakfast, just herself. 

          Giving herself a mental shake to remind herself that she was here now, and not on Ouroboros Layla reached to close the oven.

          It wouldn’t do for her to live in the past too much, not in the least. Now she'd been burned with no one to blame but the old stove. Stupid stove. She'd have to replace it with something newer, something that didn't burn her soon.

          Taking her breakfast to the table she tried to review all she had learned on the island. From Shane and Lilith with their sweet growing family, even to the rascally Daniel with the only woman in the world who could keep him steady Daniela, to Kaila and Maru, they’d all come together to give her some great lessons. In fact, it was thanks to them that she was cooking for herself at all. Originally, she’d intended to eat frozen foods or take out only thinking cooking would be too much of a hassle.

          But the fresh foods had tasted so much better to her than the stuff she’d had on board the ships she’d taken on her journey that she’d finally decided it had to be the chemicals put into the food for preservation. So she’d changed her mind and had decided instead to learn to cook. And after Shane’s instructions on gardening, she would start a garden too.

          Peeking through the windows into her backyard she could already envision the bounty she’d bring in with her own two hands and the sweat of her brow.

          Digging in to stop her grumbling stomach Layla thought out her day. That evening, she was supposed to go and eat dinner with her Uncle and his family at the Sixkiller farm, the farm her father grew up on. But she had all morning and afternoon to do whatever she wanted to do. Excitement at being somewhere new once more finally creeping into her brain she decided to find the consignment store and get acquainted with the shop keeper. She had a lot of seeds she’d picked up on her travels and had already sorted what she wanted to sell from what she planned to use. After that she wanted to explore a little bit, see what she could find and what was out there in the little town she was now calling home.

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          The moment Layla entered the shop she felt slightly suffocated. It was cluttered and unorganized. Kitchen gadgets lay against toys that sat amongst tools with posters and knick knacks galore.

          “Matthew, I know you think you work too hard, but would it be a crime for you to dust once in a while? This place is filthy!”

          A heavily pregnant sim entered through an archway, completely ignoring a wide eyed Layla.

          “And sweep? Really? Can you not sweep?

          Finally, she turned and stared at Layla, who tentatively offered her hand along with her stare.

          “And it looks like you’ve got a live one,” the woman’s face was as hard as her tone. “Though I can’t imagine why anyone would want to come in here to shop in this mess.”

          Sensing cold judgment, Layla drew her hand back hastily pretending to brush invisible lint off of her jacket front dropping her gaze as she did so.

          “She must not be from around here. She’s got on a jacket like it’s still winter. Maybe you’ll get a sale for once Matthew.”

          At long last, the woman quit staring at Layla and waddled off to criticize how over-stuffed a particular corner was.

          Shaking her head, Layla tentatively took a few steps forward happily spotting a register with a man standing behind it rolling his eyes.

          Nearly tripping on almost everything, including her own feet, Layla could hardly keep from looking all about her.

          It seemed that every time she turned her head there was something else she’d never seen before, something interesting to catch her gaze.

          Luckily, the man behind the register seemed amused by her behavior and smiled kindly at her gawking.

          “It’s a pretty interestin’ little place isn’t it?”

          Layla jerked back to reality and blushed at being caught in her child-like wonder.

          She smiled back and nodded.

          “The consignment shop in the town I’m from is nothing like this, it’s darker and more open and has a lot less-” realizing the man might take offense if she kept going, she stuttered to a halt, smiling nervously at him.

          “Most people’d just call it like it is. It’s junk honey, and Matthew knows it. He’s the one who buys all this crap that never sells and just sits here collecting dust.” The pregnant woman had come around the corner again headed who knows where with her sharp tongue.

          The man behind the counter rolled his eyes at Layla smiling broadly as he did so.

          “Thanks, Melly.”

          “What can I help you with today?” The man finally asked once the muttering Melly was out of hearing range again.

          Layla explained why she was there, handing over a few seeds and with a promise that he’d take any gems she brought in provided she had them cut first.

          She would have loved to have stayed to talk a bit further, but Melly was headed in their direction again, so Layla made a hasty exit out the nearest door intent to go explore her new town.

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          Thankfully the taxi driver said he had a great place for her to start, dropping her off near the base of a steep hill. Halfway along the road to the top she’d found a path her curiosity forced her to go off and explore instead. Happily, she meandered along picking up bits and pieces she found as she went along.

          Thanks to Shane she could now identify many of the seeds she found by sight. This seed would make a lovely grape vine. She’d love to have some grapes in her new garden, and so pocketed it, turning to the large rocks that looked to be metallic.

          Coming through the trees, Layla’s attention was caught by a very large house just beyond the metal on the ground.

          Wondering who lived in such a house, Layla walked past the two rocks she’d previously been intending to pick up stopping only to gawk at the house that stood out amidst the hills. It was obviously a newer build, but the style was as different from any other house in town as a sixth finger on an otherwise normal hand.

          Layla was so wrapped up in her thoughts she didn’t realize how close she’d gotten to the property.

          “Did you not see the signs? We prosecute trespassers.”

          Jumping a little, Layla blinked, finally seeing the young man standing on the other side of the hedge.

          “I’m sorry?” She hadn’t heard his words, only his voice.

          “Come around to the front gate. We can wait for the police to pick you up there.”

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          Sorry to leave it there, but this is long enough. Lol. A note or two, I’m not a very good builder. I’m just not. I don’t have enough imagination to come up with anything other than boxes or boxes with other boxes attached. So the house Layla is living in I stole from Sunset Valley (It’s so cute for a starter home, though totally useless for more than 2 sims.) The house she was gawping at is meant to stick out in Appaloosa Plains like sore thumb. I got it at Mod the Sims-Here! It’s so gorgeous and perfect for this. Love it. I’ve loved playing with it, too. But Layla can’t afford a place like that for a while still. Gen 1 was awfully poor with idle careers and a part-timer to boot. So it’s up to Layla to make up the family fortunes if she wants to live somewhere nicer. Lol

          And, as I'm sure my regular readers have noticed, the blog look has drastically changed! Other things have changed as well, such as beginning with this chapter there are now titles in the archives on the right. Also, the background page has come down to be replaced with a chapter by chapter summary of what has happened so far excluding this one. I'll get the summary paragraph of this one up there soon. Also, the bloopers tab will take you to a new page dedicated to bloopers from the Sixkillers. Right now, it's the generation 1 bloopers that were taken down from here are over there. I'll post them now on that blog page and notify readers of a new blooper in my authors notes.
          Finally, the Generational Goal tab has been updated. I'm going to leave up the previous generation goals, posting the newer ones below those that came before.